Virginia Tech security put to the test in gun scare

By staff and wire services reports

August 5th, 2011

A Virginia Tech gun scare raised international interest in minutes Thursday as the campus was alerted and secured, police went on a search and a sketch of a suspect was produced, the Roanoke Times reports. But as the day wore on and media inquiries came from stateside and abroad, no evidence was turned up of a safety threat–a situation that started about 9 a.m. That’s when three teenage girls reported that they’d seen a man possibly carrying a gun near Dietrick Dining Hall, university officials said. The girls were on campus as part of Higher Achievement, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that sponsors academic programs for at-risk middle school students…